(Written on 13/3/17)

Placement officially started today, but because I arrived in Texas on Wednesday I was able to have a soft start kind of day on Friday. (Thursday was a recovery day but I still don’t think I’m over the jet lag yet!)

On Friday I got to meet everyone on the team I will be working with over the next six weeks. Everyone is so nice and made me feel very welcome. I have been given my own desk with my own laptop, phone and computer to be able to assist with current projects that the team are undertaking.

The team I am working with are advertising for Pizza Hut. On Friday I got to sit in on an “internal”. This is when the digital and creative team meet to discuss final designs before sending them to the client for them to use and distribute to the public.

I was shown the “assignment deck”. This booklet showed me a huge variety of ways that Pizza Hut choose to adervtise their products and specific briefs that Tracy Locke are to follow for the client’s needs.

Today I read over the Pizza Hut account team overview. This allowed me to gain an understanding in what the team are working towards. This morning everyone form the team met to go over what people would be doing throughout the week.

Also today I went to an IR (internal review), one of the many commonly used acronyms, with Kayla (assistant account executive) and the creative team who deals with emails and SMS messages on behalf of Pizza Hut for “Hut Lovers”. An IR happens a week after the email briefing where it is decided what will be included in the email to send out to Pizza Hut customers.

The one big thing I have noticed since coming here is the use of jargon. Because this is an industry I don’t know much about the language they use is all Greek to me. There are many words which are used daily and repeatedly when talking to colleagues and clients which I wouldn’t normally use. However, I am learning and it is definitely not as daunting as it previously was.

In addition to this, there are so many acronyms used between colleagues and Pizza Hut to make communication quicker and easier. However, I know that I will be able to learn the common ones quickly. I’m beginning to feel sorry for those who don’t work in education because we talk to them using our acronyms and just expect them to understand!

So far I am able to see how this placement will help me in my own professional development. I am having to maintain my professionalism as I am working with a number of important people each day. Additionally, I am already reflecting on what I have learnt and I am thinking of ways I can apply this knowledge to my own classroom and teach a variety of lessons for my future classes.

I have had a very good start here at Tracy Locke and I am very much looking forward to see what the next few weeks will teach me.